District Leaders Celebrate Deanwood Hills

Some 150 affordable new housing units are coming to Deanwood Hills in Ward 7.

The District of Columbia Housing Authority, the city, and community partners broke ground on the new development, which will serve as the new homes for 50 families from Lincoln Heights and the Richardson Dwellings. Both properties are part of the New Communities Initiative and will be redeveloped.

The New Communities Initiative is the District’s way of making “very critical investments in our affordable housing stock,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser. The mayor added that Deanwood Hills, which will be affordable for a variety of low- to middle-income families, is another project that helps to grow the middle class. “With this project we are one step closer to advancing the goals of New Communities.”

Deanwood Hills, a nearly $35 million four-story building, will sit on a more than two-acre site. In addition to the 50 units set aside for public housing residents, another 40 units will be set aside for households earning up to 30 percent of area median income (AMI). D.C.’s current AMI is about $106,000. The remaining units will be affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of AMI. The development by Deanwood Hills LLC, a joint venture partnership between Pennrose Properties, LLC and The Warrenton Group, will contain studio, one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartment homes.

“I’m happy this site symbolizes the promises we made to our communities to provide low-income housing for years to come,” said DCHA Executive Director Adrianne Todman. “I will be pleased when we can hand families from Lincoln Heights and Richardson Dwellings the keys to their brand new homes.”

DCHA provided $2 million in capital fund loans and will provide $350,000 a year to the site in subsidy to ensure families with the lowest incomes in D.C. have a place to call home.

The District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency issued $6.10 million in long-term and $10.73 million in short-term tax exempt obligations to build Deanwood Hills.

“DCHFA enters the new fiscal year continuing to expand our affordable housing financing footprint in Ward 7. This project is the first of several that we anticipate partnering with developers and financial institutions to fund in FY 2017 throughout the City,” stated DCHFA’s Executive Director Todd A. Lee.

The project’s financing also consists of low income housing tax credit equity, a D.C. Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development New Communities Initiative loan, and a Citi Community Capital loan. DCHFA also provided a $1 million McKinney Act loan for predevelopment that was repaid at closing by Deanwood Hills LLC.

Deanwood Hills’ residents will have access to the community room that will include a cyber cafe, fitness room, three private courtyards, a bike storage room, and a tot lot. Seventy-five free parking spaces will be assigned on a first requested basis to residents.